Edwards has plan to diversify schools

NEW ORLEANS -- Sen. John Edwards plans to warn later this week that the nation’s schools have become segregated by race and income, and he will propose measures to diversify both inner-city and middle-class schools.

The plan calls for beefing up inner-city magnet schools to attract suburban kids, and providing extra money for schools in middle-class areas as a reward for enrolling more low-income students.

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Edward lingered in the Big Easy this morning – admiring a 5-year-old Head Start pupil’s sneakers and hobnobbing in a wood-floored café -- before racing into Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee as part of a three-day poverty tour designed to shine a national spotlight on the plight of often-invisible groups like struggling home-health-care workers.

During a town meeting staged in a New Orleans museum by ABC’s “Good Morning America,” he said the nation’s schools reflect the “two Americas” that he wants to unite with the ideas he’s proposing on this week’s “Road to One America” swing through the South and Appalachia.

“We still have two public school systems in this country,” Edwards said. “They're not segregated just based on race. They're segregated, to a large extent, based on economics, which has racial implications.”

“The result is,” Edwards continued, “if you live in a wealthy suburban area, the odds are very high that your child will get a very good public school education. If you live in the inner city or if you live in a poor rural area, the odds of that go down dramatically. And I think there are very specific things we can do to not only improve the quality of the education in those areas but also to improve the quality of our schools at large.”

In his remarks later this week, Edwards plans to criticize last month’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision striking down two school desegregation programs and saying that schools cannot use race as a basis for assigning students, even to promote diversity.

The proposals Edwards plans to unveil would encourage income diversity in schools, in the hope that poor students would have more experienced teachers and motivated classmates.

As explained by people who have been consulted about the program, Edwards wants to set aside $100 million to help school districts implement economic integration programs. The money will help finance buses and other resources for schools that enroll additional low-income children.

Edwards also envisions magnet schools dedicated to economic integration. The idea is that these schools would attract middle-class and suburban students to low-income areas.

Another prong of the program would create one million housing vouchers over five years to help low-income families move to better neighborhoods. As part of his vow to end poverty, Edwards also wants to phrase out housing projects that trap families in buildings that are shoddier and more expensive than private alternatives.

Also on “Good Morning America,” Edwards was asked how he can defend the $400 haircut that showed up in his campaign’s financial disclosure records.

“I don’t,” he said, to laughter. “No excuses. But can I just tell you, you know, some lessons you learn the hard way. I've learned my lesson.”

The Edwards theme for Monday was “building one America by rewarding work, with proposals that include an initiative to help ensure that all employees have at least seven paid sick days a year, with pro-rated leave for part-time workers. He also would raise the minimum wage and increase the ability of workers to organize in unions.